Saint Mary's plans to look forward after loss
Saint Mary's saw its streak end, not its season.
That was the 17th-ranked Gaels' mindset after a 7057 loss to No. 23 Gonzaga on Saturday night that snapped their 16-game win streak and denied them their first-ever perfect West Coast Conference season.
“It definitely hurts to not make history. We're not playing for an undefeated conference season, necessarily,” senior center Mitchell Saxen said. “One of our goals is regular-season champs, which we accomplished. Another one is (WCC) tournament champs.”
Saint Mary's (24-7, 151) already had locked up the regular-season crown and No. 1 seed entering the WCC tournament. The Gaels have a nine-day wait for their semifinal assignment
in Las Vegas, and coach Randy Bennett said they will spend no energy reflecting on what they've achieved so far.
“You better be careful on that,” he said. “Don't start looking at what your accomplishments are right now. You've got work to do. You have to move forward. You can't let this wreck your
confidence — we won't. The main thing is we have to get better.”
A month after taking control of the WCC race by beating the Zags 6462 in Spokane, the Gaels weren't good enough in the rematch, played before an overflow home crowd. Gonzaga used a 14-0 run to forge a 44-28 halftime lead, and Saint Mary's could not deliver any sustained comeback.
“We didn't play well tonight,” said Bennett, citing shortcomings both on offense and defense.
Up in Spokane, Saint Mary's took away Gonzaga's transition game, which fuels its high-powered offense. But 13 turnovers by the Gaels in this one allowed the Zags to score 15 fastbreak points.
“Our keys are always don't turn the ball over and keep them out of transition,” Bennett said. “You can't make it easy for them and we did tonight.”
Coach Mark Few said the Zags (24-6, 14-2) are playing their best basketball of the season.
“To come into this environment against this team, who I have massive amounts of respect for, just how they compete and how prepared they are, it's a heck of a win,” he said.